The Immortal Game

The game, move by move

King’s Gambit

1. 1. e4 King’s pawn Two squares, straight for the middle of the board — the most-played first move there has ever been.
2. 1… e5 The same claim
3. 2. f4 The King’s Gambit White offers a pawn to prise open the f-file. In 1851 this was not a surprise weapon; it was how the game was played.
4. 2… exf4 Accepted
5. 3. Bc4 The Bishop’s Gambit White develops instead of taking the pawn back, and accepts that this king is never going to castle.
6. 3… Qh4+ Check, on move three The queen comes out at once and hits the exposed king. She also walks into the middle of White’s development, which is what the next twenty moves are about.
7. 4. Kf1 The king steps aside Nothing can be interposed. White gives up castling and gets a target in exchange: from here, most white moves are a threat to that queen.
8. 4… b5 A pawn back Black offers one in return, to knock the bishop off the diagonal pointing at f7.

The queen hunt

1. 5. Bxb5 Taken
2. 5… Nf6 Black’s first piece out
3. 6. Nf3 Gaining time on the queen
4. 6… Qh6 Sideways, still holding f4
5. 7. d3 Quietly solid e4 is propped up and the c1 bishop is given a diagonal to look down.
6. 7… Nh5 Guarding the pawn The knight holds f4 from the edge of the board, where it will be stranded for four moves.
7. 8. Nh4 Heading for f5 White walks a knight to the rim on purpose. From h4 it goes to f5 — and f5 is the square this whole game turns on.
8. 8… Qg5 Chasing the knight
9. 9. Nf5 The square White wanted The knight lands on f5 and cannot be taken. It stands there for twelve moves, and then takes on g7 with check.
10. 9… c6 Asking the bishop a question
11. 10. g4 Trapping the knight The pawn hits h5 and there is no square for it. White answers a threat to a bishop by making a bigger threat somewhere else.
12. 10… Nf6 Back off the rim Four moves with the same knight — and Black still has one piece developed, which is the queen.
13. 11. Rg1 The bishop is left to hang The rook lifts to the file the g-pawn opened, and b5 is simply abandoned. This is the first of four pieces Anderssen hands over.
14. 11… cxb5 A whole piece up Black takes, and on any count is now winning. Every count is about to stop mattering.

Rook offered

1. 12. h4 Chasing again
2. 12… Qg6 Nowhere better to go
3. 13. h5 And again Two pawns have walked the queen backwards while gaining space on the side of the board where her king lives.
4. 13… Qg5 Back where she started
5. 14. Qf3 Threatening the trap White develops the queen and threatens Bxf4, which would leave the black queen with no square at all.
6. 14… Ng8 Sent home The only defence is to put the knight back where it started. Fourteen moves in, Black has moved almost nothing but the queen.
7. 15. Bxf4 The pawn comes back
8. 15… Qf6 Queens facing down the f-file

Both rooks

1. 16. Nc3 The last piece out Every white piece is now doing something. Black has a queen, a knight back on g8, and a lot of material.
2. 16… Bc5 Hitting the rook
3. 17. Nd5 The rook can wait A knight fork of c7 and f6, with an invitation attached: take the rook on g1.
4. 17… Qxb2 Taking the pawn Black takes b2 and lines the queen up on the rook in the corner as well. Two more white pieces are about to be offered.
5. 18. Bd6 Both rooks, at once The bishop steps into the middle of Black’s position, ignores the bishop attacking g1, and leaves both rooks there to be taken. It is the most famous move in chess.
6. 18… Bxg1 One rook Black cannot decline — and after taking is a rook and a bishop ahead, with the other rook still sitting there.
7. 19. e5 Shutting the door The pawn steps onto the long diagonal and cuts the black queen off from g7 — the square White has been aiming a knight at since move nine.
8. 19… Qxa1+ The second rook, with check Black takes everything on offer. White has a queen, two knights, a bishop and six pawns left, and it turns out to be exactly enough.

Mated by three pieces

1. 20. Ke2 The king walks up The only move: out of check without touching anything else, so that Nxg7 is still coming.
2. 20… Na6 Covering c7 And here the record goes quiet — several sources say Kieseritzky resigned about now, and the finish below is the one the world has reproduced ever since.
3. 21. Nxg7+ The knight cashes in Twelve moves after it arrived on f5, with check.
4. 21… Kd8 Forced e7 and f8 are both covered by the bishop on d6, so there is exactly one square.
5. 22. Qf6+ The queen, given away The last piece of any weight, offered so that the knight on g8 is dragged to f6 — where it stops guarding e7.
6. 22… Nxf6 The only legal move
7. 23. Be7# Checkmate Two knights and a bishop finish it. White has given away a queen, both rooks and a bishop; the pieces that mate are the three nobody wanted.